Mathilde Johansson

The week-long Hong Kong Tennis Open in September 2014 will be played in Victoria Park, the city's major downtown green space, and there are hopes of attracting the international stars of women's tennis.

Serena Williams, who claims to be exhausted near the end of a long season, reacted with fretful worrying, and sometimes distracting behaviour while struggling to a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 two-hour win over Jelena Jankovic.

The world number two from Belarussia admits to having become over-tired near the end of the season, and once the intelligent and strongly-focussed Jankovic had tenaciously clung to her break to take the first set she began to make steady progress.

The world number one from the United States took little more than an hour and allowed only four games to Angelique Kerber, who beat her in Cincinnati last year but who was now outplayed almost from the moment she dropped serve in her opening service game.

The 26-year-old Russian -- presently number three in the world -- had had to withdraw from the US Open on the eve of the tournament because of the injury and owing to a previous hip problem has played just one match since a second round exit at Wimbledon in June.

The Russian, who won the French Open on clay last year, brought a 16-match winning streak on the surface into Madrid and was strongly favoured to coast past a player who has been dogged by knee injuries.

Williams did not commit a double fault but took full advantage of 12 by Camila Giorgi to win 6-2, 6-3 after 82 minutes in her first match since capturing the WTA Miami crown last Saturday by beating Maria Sharapova in the final.

The US Tennis Association (USTA) boosted the base prize money for this year's US Open by $4.1 million beyond the $4 million jump announced last December, raising the total to $33.6 million compared to $25.5 million in 2012.